DNREC's TrashStoppers program to stop illegal trash dumping in Delaware has thrived on violators convicting themselves by breaking the law on camera and costing themselves thousands of dollars in fines.

DNREC's TrashStoppers program to stop illegal trash dumping in Delaware has thrived on perpetrators convicting themselves by breaking the law on camera and costing themselves thousands of dollars in fines.

And now, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control has released a new video on the TrashStoppers program to give an exclusive, inside look at how this nationally-recognized program has operated to thwart illegal dumping and do away with roadside dump sites in the state of Delaware. The video has been posted to YouTube.

TrashStoppers – working out of DNREC's Office of Community Services and within the department's Environmental Crimes Unit – was an immediate success, and states as far away as Alaska have emulated its strategic use of surveillance cameras to reduce illegal trash dumping by lawbreakers.

Since it was launched in 2010, the TrashStoppers program has resulted in some 100 arrests of perpetrators for illegal dumping in all three Delaware counties -- New Castle, Kent and Sussex -- while a website featuring photos of illegal dumpers taken by TrashStoppers cameras has generated still more leads for identifying and apprehending violators.